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Saturday, April 28, 2012

Week 16: Thursday Deuteronomy 22-23

Invocation

P In
the name of the Father and of the T Son
and of the Holy Spirit.

C Amen.

Reading
Deuteronomy 22:1—23:25

1“You
shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and
ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2And
if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall
bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your
brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3And
you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with
any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you
may not ignore it. 4You shall not see your brother’s
donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall
help him to lift them up again.

5“A
woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a
woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to
the Lord your God.

6“If
you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with
young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the
eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7You
shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself,
that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

8“When
you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that
you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone
should fall from it.

9“You
shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole
yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the
vineyard. 10You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey
together. 11You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen
mixed together.

12“You
shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with
which you cover yourself.

13“If
any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her 14and
accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I
took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her
evidence of virginity,’ 15then the father of the young
woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her
virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16And the
father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my
daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17and
behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find
in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the
evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the
cloak before the elders of the city. 18Then the elders of
that city shall take the man and whip him, 19and they
shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the
father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a
virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her
all his days. 20But if the thing is true, that evidence of
virginity was not found in the young woman, 21then they
shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house,
and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because
she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s
house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

22“If
a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall
die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall
purge the evil from Israel.

23“If
there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies
with her, 24then you shall bring them both out to the gate
of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the
young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the
city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you
shall purge the evil from your midst.

25“But
if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed,
and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay
with her shall die. 26But you shall do nothing to the
young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For
this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor,
27because he met her in the open country, and though the
betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

28“If
a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies
with her, and they are found, 29then the man who lay with
her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of
silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He
may not divorce her all his days.

30
“A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not
uncover his father’s nakedness.

1“No
one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall
enter the assembly of the Lord.

2“No
one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the
assembly of the Lord.

3“No
Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the
tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord
forever, 4because they did not meet you with bread and
with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they
hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia,
to curse you. 5But the Lord your God would not listen to
Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing
for you, because the Lord your God loved you. 6You shall
not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

7“You
shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not
abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
8Children born to them in the third generation may enter
the assembly of the Lord.

9“When
you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself
from every evil thing.

10“If
any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission,
then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp,
11but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water,
and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

12“You
shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it.
13And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when
you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and
cover up your excrement. 14Because the Lord your God walks
in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies
before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see
anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

15“You
shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his
master to you. 16He shall dwell with you, in your midst,
in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever
it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

17“None
of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of
the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. 18You shall
not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the
house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these
are an abomination to the Lord your God.

19“You
shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on
money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for
interest. 20You may charge a foreigner interest, but you
may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may
bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering
to take possession of it.

21“If
you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling
it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will
be guilty of sin. 22But if you refrain from vowing, you
will not be guilty of sin. 23You shall be careful to do
what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord
your God what you have promised with your mouth.

24“If
you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of
grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag.
25If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may
pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your
neighbor’s standing grain.

Collect

Almighty
God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom
no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the
inspiration of Your Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love You and
worthily magnify Your holy name; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I
believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion
of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and
the life everlasting. Amen.

What
does this mean?

I
believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus
Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by
the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in
the true faith.

In
the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole
Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one
true faith.

In
this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and
the sins of all believers.

On
the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life
to me and all believers in Christ.

This
is most certainly true.

Lord's
Prayer

C Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.For
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.